Posted on 02/28/2023 11:27:36 AM PST by Olog-hai
With more lunar missions than ever on the horizon, the European Space Agency wants to give the moon its own time zone.
This week, the agency said space organizations around the world are considering how best to keep time on the moon. The idea came up during a meeting in the Netherlands late last year, with participants agreeing on the urgent need to establish “a common lunar reference time,” said the space agency’s Pietro Giordano, a navigation system engineer.
“A joint international effort is now being launched towards achieving this,” Giordano said in a statement.
For now, a moon mission runs on the time of the country that is operating the spacecraft. European space officials said an internationally accepted lunar time zone would make it easier for everyone, especially as more countries and even private companies aim for the moon and NASA gets set to send astronauts there.
NASA had to grapple with the time question while designing and building the International Space Station, fast approaching the 25th anniversary of the launch of its first piece.
While the space station doesn’t have its own time zone, it runs on Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is meticulously based on atomic clocks. That helps to split the time difference between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, and the other partnering space programs in Russia, Japan and Europe. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
That’s kind of Greenwich *mean*, don’t you think?
I had the chance to go to the Greenwich Observatory a few years ago, and stand on The Prime Meridian!
I’m sure they wanted in the Belgium time zone but screw them. Please t the Moon on Florida time. After all Americans have been the only ones on the moon so far.
What time is it on moon?
Dark o:colck
I knew you’d get it, though.
Zero Dark thirty
yep and cold
I’d love to do that.
Will we have to send people up there twice a year to change the clocks?
Yes, frankly. The celestial bodies are what our “scientists” set clocks to, even atomic clocks.
Opus?
You know you’ve watched too much television in your life if you know about that show.
Neil, Buzz and those who followed kept their watches on Houston time. (CDT at the time.)
no, just old...
I am not sure you understand.
NASA lacked the capability to complete all elements of the mission by themselves—so they outsourced some of the most critical and difficult elements to the Europeans.
Both NASA and the Europeans have fallen years behind schedule—I am amazed they haven’t started pointing fingers at each other.
As the “delay” drags on expect to see that—the fake smiles are going to get old and the blaming and shaming will begin.
As the “delay” drags on expect to see that—the fake smiles are going to get old and the blaming and shaming will begin.
there it is
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